Cal women's basketball scores 1st goal: relevance

Updated 11:44 pm, Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb in the middle of morning practice on Saturday April 6, 2013, as the Cal Bears women's basketball team prepares for the national semi-finals against the Louisville Cardinals in the 2013 NCAA Final Four Basketball Tournament at the New Orleans Arena.

Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb in the middle of morning practice on Saturday April 6, 2013, as the Cal Bears women's basketball team prepares for the national semi-finals against the Louisville Cardinals in the

The women's basketball team, which opens the season this week, is ranked No. 9 in the country, the team's graduation rate under coach Lindsay Gottlieb is 100 percent, and the future only looks bright.

Sky-high expectations? Gottlieb says bring them on.

"Isn't this what we're striving for?" she asked. "It's not about having one great team but building one of the few elite programs in women's college basketball. We want to be in that conversation."

After last season's 32-4 journey, which ended in the national championship semifinals, Cal is definitely in that conversation. Third-year coach Gottlieb is trying to prepare her team for another potential postseason push. Part of that preparation is a tough preconference schedule.

On Sunday, the Bears host second-ranked Duke. In December, they'll take on currently top-ranked UConn at Madison Square Garden. With Cal's two conference dates against third-ranked Stanford, the Bears are the only team scheduled to face the three teams that top the preseason rankings.

"I try to be very aware of the pulse of women's basketball and how to be relevant," Gottlieb said. "And, to me, you're relevant if you're playing UConn on TV. If you're in games that ESPN wants to pick up. We want our future recruits to know we're going to be in those games."

Women's basketball relevancy was part of the reason for Cal's trip to China in August. Though Cal was eligible to take a foreign trip in 2012, Gottlieb pushed it back a year. She knew that last year's team, with all returning players and strong leadership, didn't necessarily need that kind of experience.

"That was the most bonded team in the history of the world," Gottlieb said.

But this year, the Bears are different, having lost four seniors (all four earned their degrees). Gottlieb now has four freshmen, two transfers, and returning players who are taking on different roles and more responsibility.

The coach knows China is a growing market for women's basketball. Top players like Nneka Ogwumike and Brittney Griner are playing professionally there in the winter during the WNBA offseason. Gottlieb wanted to expose her players not only to a life experience but also a potentially career-enhancing moment.

Spending 10 days in China brought the Bears close together - bargaining for designer purses at the Silk Market, getting their picture taken by Chinese tourists who weren't used to seeing tall African American women, holding an impromptu dance party outside the Forbidden City. Cal was recognized as a global brand, and the team was welcomed everywhere it went.

Gottlieb was struck by the magnitude of having players from Belgium and Compton standing together in historic China.

"To have those moments on the Great Wall of China," Gottlieb said, "it's such an example of where basketball can take you."

It's moments like those that make Gottlieb shake her head in sadness over this week's topic of bullying in sports.

"I know the football culture is different," Gottlieb said. "But that behavior can't breed success. I've been saddened by this. It really makes me appreciate our players, that they are really good human beings who respect one another. And they're family."

Gottlieb has had personal trauma in her non-basketball family. Last month, her father died unexpectedly. A retired judge in New York, Stephen Gottlieb, who was 77, had come to New Orleans to support the Bears last spring. Coach Gottlieb, who lost her mother to cancer when she was 19, was exceptionally close to her father.

"I'm the youngest, so he definitely sort of became both parents to me," she said.

Now she's back with her basketball family. Cal returns a lot of talent, including junior forward Reshanda Gray and junior guard Brittany Boyd. Forward Gennifer Brandon is making progress after having a rod inserted in her leg because of ongoing issues with stress fractures.

The Bears were picked to finish second in the Pac-12 behind perennial favorite Stanford. Last year, the Bears split with Stanford, beating the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion.

Gottlieb, the reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year, hopes that the rivalry continues to grow and that her program can emulate Tara VanDerveer's. She knows that getting into the conversation isn't as hard as staying there.

"I think about Tara and what she's done, year in and year out," Gottlieb said. "We're not shying away from having the bar raised."

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